


Under a Texas Sky

by MotherRameses, TessAlyn



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: M/M, Meet-Cute, Modern AU, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Significant Glances, Thrawn is still blue, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Vet!Eli, West Texas, aliens exist, no one questions that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 09:49:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20486909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MotherRameses/pseuds/MotherRameses, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TessAlyn/pseuds/TessAlyn
Summary: Eli is a veterinarian in rural Lysatran County, Texas. He does a lot of farm visits, but also runs a small clinic in town for domestic animals. One day, a tall, blue-skinned stranger comes into the clinic carrying a large, furry lizard.





	Under a Texas Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Plot bunnies just keep multiplying! Enjoy this modern day, Eli-is-a-vet AU!

The sun hung low in the sky, scant white puffy clouds dotting the blue as far as the eye could see. Darker, heavier gray clouds were rolling in on the northern horizon, and Eli could just catch the faint smell of rain on the breeze. 

Eli smiled to himself as he walked down the dirt road to his truck. Summer in west Texas could be punishing, but today had been mild, thanks to the storms brewing beyond the scrubby mountains. As he reached his truck, he found himself wondering if days like today were the reason his family had decided to settle in Lysatran County generations ago— stunning blue skies, clean desert air, and plenty of space to roam. 

Of course, the storms were nothing to sneer at. He had pulled off the access road and parked at the start of the Bowen Ranch drive, deciding not to take his old 4x4 all the way down to the main homestead. The road hadn’t fared well in the last storm; a gully washer had taken a section in the middle clear away, leaving small boulders and deep crevasses in its wake. Jenna Bowen, the matriarch of the large Bowen family, had warned Eli about it when she called this morning about her daughter’s horse. 

“That damn horse is just fine, I swear,” Jenna had said conspiratorially over the phone. “You just know how Jamie gets. She says Butternut didn’t wanna do his jumps this mornin’, so he must be sick. I told her it’s ‘cause she wasn’t committin’, but that girl thinks bein’ thirteen years old means she knows she’s right at all times.”

Eli had chuckled at that. He weathered his fair share of calls from families in exactly the same situation over the years as the county’s primary veterinarian, but he didn’t mind. The people in Lysatran County were kind, and if a kid was scared his best friend was sick because he didn’t eat his treats this morning, Eli didn’t mind coming out to quiet a worried soul. 

As such, Eli had managed to fit the Bowens in as his last appointment of the day. The horse, Butternut, was indeed fine, and Eli refused payment for coming out to confirm that. Jamie had been worried sick, crying tears of joy to learn that Butternut was healthy, and insisted Eli take a plate of cookies as thanks for tending to her best friend on the planet. 

Eli climbed into his truck, deciding to munch on a cookie and watch the sunset, when a movement on the horizon caught his eye. As he watched, he was able to make out the sight of a truck trundling along the outside of the fence bordering the Bowen property. This struck him as odd— as far as he knew, the Bowen’s was the last inhabited parcel of land in the county. The state owned everything beyond that, including where the truck was now. 

Eli bit into another cookie as the truck drew closer, then stopped near a crooked fence post. The vehicle was painted white with deeply tinted windows— not uncommon in this part of the state, thanks to the sun— but it looked to be new, and it didn’t have the land management stripe running along its door. 

Frowning, Eli watched as a man got out of the truck and pulled a shovel out of the back. The man turned to the fence post and started digging around it, the dry dirt sending up little puffs of dust. After a few moments, he gave a massive tug on the post, righting it from its crooked position, then filled the ground back in around it. 

Eli raised his eyebrows. Usually fixing a post like that was a two-man job. Whoever this guy was, he was strong. The man turned back to his truck, and Eli thought he could make out the sight of a loop of barbed wire in the man’s hands. That would make sense. The wiring on the fence was probably old and rusted, and had snapped when the post got knocked askew. 

Eli continued to watch the man as he set to work adding the new wire, and Eli was struck by how… odd the man looked. He had to squint at this distance, but his skin looked… blue? It was hard to tell in the setting sun, but the man wasn’t wearing a hat, and Eli could swear his face had a definite blue tint to it. He wasn’t wearing sleeves, either. Eli wondered how much sunscreen the man went through if all he wore was overalls and a white undershirt— not that he  _ minded _ . The stranger’s exposed biceps had a blue tint as well, and even from far away, Eli could see that his shoulders were broad and his chest was heavily muscled. 

As the man finished his work and turned back to his truck, Eli realized that he must also be quite tall. He didn’t use the step to climb back into the cab, and he hadn’t climbed into the bed to grab his tools. He’d just reached in and pulled them out, without even bending forward.

Eli gave himself a little shake as the truck drew nearer. Someone tall, strong, and new in town, if how he dressed was anything to go by.

Someone who was driving right towards him. 

Eli arranged his face into what he hoped was a pleasantly neutral expression as the truck approached, slowing a bit as it pulled up alongside him. But as Eli prepared to give a friendly nod, his breath caught in his throat. 

The man’s eyes were a brilliant, glowing  _ red _ . His skin was indeed blue, and his hair a shimmering blue-black. Eli stared, transfixed, as the truck sidled by, and then snapped out of his reverie as the man gave him a small smile and the same, polite nod Eli had intended to give him. 

Eli hastily nodded back, hoping he didn’t look too ridiculous, and the man raised his hand in a wave before returning it to pet what looked like a cat sitting on the dash of the truck. Eli waved back, still slightly stunned as the truck passed him, continuing its slow patrol of the fence.

  
Who the hell was  _ that? _


End file.
